Quality Evaluation of the Proteins and Micronutrient Contents of Some Non-Conventional Grain Legumes

Abstract

The objective of the study was to evaluate the nutritional values of some leguminous seed flours. Flours were prepared from winged  bean (MB), MKP5 long bean (LB), dwarf long bean (DLB) and MKB1 French bean (FB), and then assessed for their protein quality, vitamin  and mineral compositions, in comparison with flours of soybean (SB) and mung bean (MB) seeds. All the leguminous seed flours were  rich in essential amino acids of lysine, leucine, arginine, methionine, and phenylalanine. Only three (thiamine, pyridoxine, nicotinic acid)  of the four B vitamins studied were detected in the legumes at varying levels with pyridoxine detected in all samples except LB, whereas  SB had the highest level (74.46 µg/g). The SB and MKP5 had high levels (1944.03 µg/g and 869.48 µg/g, respectively) of pyridoxine compared to the other legumes. The Ƴ-tocopherol, in the range of 13.7-57.25 µg/g, was the only and most abundant vitamin detected in  all legume seed flours, whereas δ-Tocopherol was in the range of 0.89-55.63 µg/g in all the flours except WB seed flour. The most  abundant mineral elements in all samples were phosphorus, potassium, and magnesium. The study suggest that the underutilized  legumes can be used as alternatives to conventional legumes in providing the necessary amino acids and the required micro-nutrients  for optimum human growth and development.